Fujifilm may have started as a manufacturer of photographic film, but the company’s decision to branch into many areas of business — including a transition to a digital camera manufacturer in the past several years — has been a succesful one. In 2007, Fujifilm cameras ranked eighth worldwide in number of digital cameras manufactured, with about 8.3 million units, according to a Techno Systems Research report. Fujifilm cameras, sometimes shortened to Fuji cameras, held a market share of about 6.3%.

Fujifilm offers several digital cameras under the Finepix brand name, including point and shoot models and digital SLR models.

Fujifilm’s History

Founded in 1934 as Fuji Photo Film Co., the company filled a desire from the Japanese government for a domestic photography film manufacturing industry. Fuji Photo quickly expanded, opening several factories and establishing subsidiary companies.

By 1965, the company established an American subsidiary in Valhalla, N.Y., called Fuji Photo Film USA. European branches soon followed. Some subsidiaries began using the Fujifilm name in the mid-1990s as the company began transitioning its business offerings away from heavy reliance on photographic film, and the entire company officially became Fujifilm in 2006.

During its company’s history, Fujifilm has offered photographic film, motion picture film, x-ray film, color reversal film (slides), microfilm, color negatives, 8mm motion picture film, and videotape. Beyond film, the company also has offered computer storage tape, computer floppy disks, offset printing plates, digital x-ray imaging, and medical imaging systems.

Fujifilm made its first digital still camera in 1988, the DS-1P, and it was the world’s first digital camera with removeable media. The company also created the first one-time-use recyclable film camera, the QuickSnap, in 1986